Alana's Advice...

Cliques and bullies in middle and high school can have a devastating impact on the lives and development of the children affected. Unfortunately in middle and high school, kids often divide themselves up into various groups based on similar personality traits. Bullying goes hand in hand with cliques, as some kids see others as threats because they are different, weird, or nerdy. Sometimes bullies behave the way they do because of a frustrating life out of school. Personality differences are not always tolerated and one group of kids will deliberately exclude others that are not the same as they are. Here we follow the escapades of Alana and Jackie, who have been best friends for years. They both work on the school newspaper at their middle school, where Alana runs an advice column, but their arch rival, Jane, who is editor of the newspaper, never ceases being a thorn in their side. Twists and turns of an adventure await the girls, including a shocking history class final, meeting some of their favorite celebrities, giving some solid advice, daydreaming, planning to get even, but in the end, they finally learned the truth about who Jane really was. This story has a little of everything in it, but along with all the adventures the girls go through comes some excellent and sound advice for students on how to survive the tribulations of school.

Alexandra Sabina Bender is a seventh grade student in middle school and lives with her parents and sister Michelle in Connecticut. Observing first hand the hurt and destructive power of cliques, she wrote this book when she was 12 years old to teach understanding and tolerance to others. She is currently working on her third book.